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Wednesday, 7 September 2016

#climate: Non-State Actors Say How Paris Can Boost Climate Action

UNFCCC Collaboration Centre Dialogues

Article
/ 06. SEP, 2016

Tackling climate change will take broad-based action – from
towns and cities, the private sector, public and private organizations,
even individuals. This fact is clear in the Paris Climate Change
Agreement with its strong focus on action by “non-State actors”.

Reports just released from five regional meetings reveal the
views of non-State actors in developing countries on the Paris
Agreement’s provisions for (1) transferring mitigation outcomes,
essentially emissions trading; (2) a new Sustainable Development
Mechanism; and (3) a framework for non-market approaches. All three of
the economic instruments are described in Article 6 of the Paris
Agreement.

At the meetings, held to kick-start dialogue, representatives
of regional bodies, organizations and think tanks, consultants,
academics, researchers, and project developers concluded, among other
things and with varying levels of agreement, that:

The economic instruments under
the Paris Agreement could help countries achieve their national plans
(so-called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)) and/or allow
countries to commit to greater ambition

Consideration of sustainable
development benefits needs to be strengthened, especially in relation to
poverty alleviation and adaptation co-benefits, perhaps by establishing
a link with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

The economic instruments should
enable transparency and ensure a robust monitoring, reporting and
verification of results while being simple and user friendly

Quantified NDCs should be a
prerequisite for transfers of emission reduction outcomes, but
highlighted difficulties as NDCs might not be comparable

Transferred emission reduction outcomes should be quantifiable in similar units, such as tonnes of CO2-equivalent

Great similarity could exist
between the Sustainable Development Mechanism under the Paris Agreement
and the market-based mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol, which
incentivize the private sector to develop emission reduction and
development projects.

“Countries adopted the Paris Agreement, but it will be up to
all of society to implement it,” said James Grabert, Director,
Sustainable Development Mechanisms programme at the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat. “The economic
instruments described in the agreement have tremendous potential to spur
action and ambition; that’s why the results of these regional dialogues
are so important.”

Regional non-State actor dialogues on Article 6 of the Paris
Agreement were held in in Bangkok, Thailand, on 9 June 2016, in St.
George’s, Grenada, on 12 July, in Bogota, Colombia, on 14 July 2016, in
Entebbe, Uganda, on 18 July and in Lomé, Togo, on 22 July. In total, 82
regional experts took part.

The dialogues formed the second stage of a project, started in
2015, funded by the governments of Germany and Norway, aimed at
supporting developing countries in the use of economic instruments to
achieve their NDCs.